Sam Winchester | Season Four

Season Four | Sam

Season 4 begins with Dean waking up back in his own body, in his coffin, alive. Four months have passed, and he does not know why he is alive again. He experiences first suspicious, then joyous reunions with Bobby Singer and Sam (and the Impala). He and Bobby try to summon the force that brought him back from Hell, and discover that it was the angel, Castiel, on orders from higher up. Throughout the course of Season 4, Sam's activities while Dean was in Hell are slowly revealed. Sam was in despair after Dean's death, and tried to make a deal with a crossroads demon to switch places with Dean, but no demon would deal with him. He drinks to excess and acts recklessly—he has a death wish—until Ruby makes contact with him and begins to teach him how to use his powers. Ruby possesses the body of a comatose woman whose soul has already fled. In a short time, Sam and Ruby become lovers, and Ruby is able to shake Sam out of his depression to some extent. Together, they hunt demons and Sam exorcises them and sends them back to Hell using his powers. Sam is overwhelmed when Dean returns from Hell, but the two quickly begin fighting. Castiel informs Dean of Sam's use of his powers, leading up to a minor fallout between the brothers, as Dean tries to get him to stop using them and stop hanging out with Ruby. Sam, who is religious, is delighted to find that angels are helping he and Dean, Sam promises Dean to stop using his abilities, but quickly breaks the promise.

Meanwhile, Dean lies to Sam, claiming he remembers nothing of Hell. But in "Wishful Thinking," he reveals that he does remember, but does not want to tell Sam. Finally, in "Heaven and Hell," Dean reveals the awful truth about Hell to Sam—the four months he was there were like forty years, and Dean was tortured for three-quarters of that time under the ministrations of the demon, Alastair, until he finally agreed to himself become a torturer. He confesses he wished he couldn't feel at all, because thinking of his past actions in Hell is tormenting him.

Season 4 shows a Sam much changed. He's a colder, less emotional person. He blatantly lies to Dean and to the spirit of a young boy, promising him that he can be saved from the Reaper who is there to take him. Whether it's living without Dean for 4 months or his demonic powers that have caused the change is uncertain.

In "On the Head of a Pin," the secret to Sam's increase in power is finally revealed; he is drinking Ruby's blood. After their latest session, Sam can now restrain demons with his mind, as well as outright kill them rather than just send them back to hell as other spells and weapons do. Sam recognizes that developing his powers as such is wrong, yet wants it anyway. After using his powers to torture Alistair into revealing who is killing the angels (or, who isn't), he kills him.

In "The Rapture" It is discovered Sam is addicted to the demon blood, and that without it his powers are not as strong. During the episode, he is shown drinking from a stashed flask full of the demon blood, and then trying to contact Ruby numerous times when he runs out. As he gets more desperate, and hears no word from Ruby, he drinks the blood of another demon he is about to kill as Dean is watching. At the end of the episode, Bobby and Dean trick Sam and lock him inside the panic room at Bobby's house.

Sam goes through painful withdrawal symptoms and begins experiencing hallucinations. After Sam is telekinetically thrown around the room, Bobby and Dean restrain him to the bed to stop him from hurting himself. Castiel releases the restraints and breaks the seals, allowing Sam to escape. He finds Ruby and drinks her blood again. Ruby explains that if he kills Lilith, that that will stop the apocalypse, but he must consume more blood to be powerful enough to do so. Dean has tracked Sam down despite Sam's efforts to trick him, enters the room and attempts to attack Ruby, although Sam stops him. Sam and Dean argue about how to stop the apocalypse, whereupon Dean tells Sam that he is changing into a monster, leading to a vicious fight. After Sam defeats Dean, leaving despite Dean's warning him that if he leaves now, "don't you ever come back."

In the season 4 finale "Lucifer Rising," Sam begins to feel the hurt of having abandoned his brother, much to Ruby's annoyance. He captures a demon that is tasked with stealing babies for Lilith and tortures her for Lilith's location and the place of the final seal. After the torture, Sam has every intention of killing the demon with his powers, but Ruby reminds him that he will need more blood to defeat Lilith than she can give and persuades him to take the demon along for her blood. At this point, the demon "goes to sleep" and leaves behind a scared human who fearfully pleads to be let go, inciting immense guilt in Sam. A voice message from Dean patching things up with Sam has been altered by Ruby to the effect that Dean condemns Sam for his acts.Based on the demon's information, Ruby and Sam go to St. Mary's Convent and find Lilith. As Sam attempts to kill Lilith, Ruby holds the doors shut to keep Dean, who has just arrived, from interfering. Sam hesitates when he hears his brother yelling for him, but when Lilith mocks him for his inability to do the job after becoming a monster to get to this point, he finishes her off (fulfilling his true destiny as the special child). Her death breaks the final seal and begins forming a portal for Lucifer. At this point, Ruby reveals that she was leading Sam along the entire time so he'd break the seal. Dean finally enters the room and kills Ruby with her own demon-killing knife, while Sam holds her in place. Sam apologizes to his brother as a white light shows a portal beginning to open.

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